Wheel of Words, a puzzling word game for Windows Phone and Windows 8

Wheel of Words is a Windows Phone word game that has potential but is in desperate need of a design overhaul. The concept has you spinning a wheel, which randomly generates a word from an assortment of categories.

The word is conveniently missing a few letters and it is your job to fill in the blanks. The challenge comes into play with a game timer that you have to race in completing the word.

Available for low-memory Windows Phones and Windows 8 devices, Wheel of Words is an interesting game but a cluttered, distractive game layout with the Windows Phone version significantly holds the game back.

A game with potential

Wheel of Words' main menu will greet you with options to jump into game play, view your high score and exit the game. Jumping into game play you will find a very cluttered gaming screen that has your roulette wheel that is used to determine your word category, your game field that will display your word category and word to solve, along with your score.

You also have gaming instructions displayed on the game screen, a button bar to pull up your on-screen keyboard, and a chance counter. Chances are basically your gaming lives. Guess a wrong letter and you lose a chance, fail to solve the puzzle and you lose a chance and if you lose all three chances the game is over.

Game play has you spinning the roulette wheel and a partial word will be displayed. You have to tap on the keyboard button and fill in the blanks. You have fifteen seconds to complete the word or you lose a chance.

In addition to the gaming board you also have control buttons to pull up the developer's credits and a "how to play" screen.

Overall Impression

The concept of Wheel of Words could make for a nice, challenging game. Where the game falls flat is a terrible layout, which is one of the worst I've seen and the screenshots in the Store are not what you see from your Windows Phone.

The rainbow background is nice but there isn't enough contrast or separation between the background and the gaming pieces. The text is difficult to read and there is an issue present that compresses the display. You also have your Windows Phone header, that show your signal strength, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc. displayed which prevents the view from going full screen.

There is a Windows 8 version of Wheel of Words that looks a bazillion times better than the Windows Phone version. Hopefully this means the messed up display is a glitch that can be easily fixed with a gaming update.

The game is worth trying but as is, you'll need a little patience. Wheel of Words is currently rated at 4.5 Stars after one review. I can see the game rating reach the 4 Star range but only if the display issues can be resolved.